The regulatory compliance process can be cumbersome. The paperwork is costly, takes up valuable space, and logs often vary between employees. Implementing an electronic solution addresses all these problems and decreases the amount of work around compliance surveys.
Exploring the benefits of digitizing the regulatory compliance process was the subject of a Sept. 14 webinar hosted by Becker's Hospital Review and sponsored by Surglogs. John Castro, Product Development Manager at Surglogs, served as a moderator.
The speakers were:
- Damien Berg, Regional Manager of Sterile Processing at UCHealth
- Jeremy Ralston, Facilities Engineer at San Luis Obispo Surgery Center
- Brandon Coombs, Vice President of Business Development at Surglogs
Here are four key takeaways from the webinar:
1. The pain points of paperwork. When it comes to regulatory compliance, everything a hospital or surgery center uses needs to be logged. The traditional logging process is labor- and resource-intensive and results in mountains of paperwork.
When a surveyor comes to a facility, that paperwork has to be sorted quickly and efficiently. Even the most minor variations among logs can cause surveyors to ask questions and dig deeper, causing headaches and sleepless nights for the staff. Ensuring your staff creates consistent and accurate logs is a quintessential element to the review process and can be accomplished with a digital solution.
2. Benefits of a digital solution. Every accreditation organization has its own set of standards that come with a different set of logs. “The Joint Commission, for example, can use a different set of logs on a center-by-center basis. And while the skeleton of the logs is the same, it can be difficult to standardize logs between facilities,” Mr. Coombs said.
Surglogs' digital solution is adaptable and customizable to fit logs for your center. This solution always has your compliance percentage ready in case of a surprise inspection. Finally, Surglogs provides immersive support when adopting the platform and has an on-site support team with an average response time of 42 seconds. "When you're focusing on patient care you need an answer now," Mr. Coombs said.
3. Improving workflow. Since adopting the solution, Mr. Berg has seen improvements in workflows around logging. He has been able to pinpoint issues with workflow more easily. In his position, Mr. Berg manages two facilities in northern Colorado. The Surglogs solution makes information on both facilities available at his fingertips and erases concerns about any variance between facilities.
Most importantly for Mr. Berg, it finds failures in the log process and points out human errors. "I need to know what the failures are," he said. "Is it human error? Is the machine down? I need to know what's going on in my department." Surglogs helps him identify those errors and improve the aspects, where surveyors usually find deficiencies. "I no longer have to use the 'crate of knowledge,' which was a crateload of binders and books we had to keep constantly updated for the audit," he added.
4. Reducing man-hours. Mr. Ralston has realized many of the same benefits too. Surglogs helped his facility control its labor, supply, and storage costs. It has intangible savings through its summary reporting, report accuracy, efficiency, supply ordering, and notification settings. For example, Mr. Ralston and his team used to spend half a day with a surveyor when they came in for an inspection. "The logs have made it easy for our infection controllers to put in a 30-second log and keep the team updated," he said. "When the surveyor comes in, I put the whole thing in front of them. What previously took half a day takes a couple hours now."
The situation is similar for Mr. Berg as well. When a surveyor comes in, he used to take the paper report, give it to an administrator to ensure it was complete and then give it to the surveyor. With Surglogs, he knows the report he gives to the surveyor is complete and accurate. "We eliminated that [extra] person," he said. "The logs are there and they're guaranteed to be accurate."
Watch the recording of this webinar here. Learn about Surglogs’ digital tools here.